Forgive in Regret
by YJ-Obsessed
Summary: This was originally called When a Hero Falls, but I changed the ending, and so changed the title. This is about the boys' reactions to the revelation about Roy. Not Conner, because this is about the three who know Roy best


_**This one-shot is in response to the revelation that Red Arrow is a clone. How would his three friends feel about this? All the times they spent with him...suddenly they question it all. How can they be sure that it meant anything?**_

**Robin:**

When Robin got home from the mission, he just went straight to his room. He didn't talk to Alfred. Bruce had to drag a conversation out of him about how they had to fight. Dick wearily said that it was fine, he knew that Batman hadn't been in control. Richard lay on his bed thinking about the day's events. Mostly about the fact that Roy...wasn't Roy. He was a clone. A spy for the league of Shadows. All that time...he never realized. He never thought that...*Well why would you think that it was Roy? He's like your brother,* Dick rationalized. Except, he wasn't. The Roy Harper that Dick thought he knew, thought that he had grown up with over the years wasn't real. He was a clone, a copy of the real Speedy. But then, when was the switch made? How did they not notice? Shouldn't there have been some slight differences? Little things that those closest to Roy would pick up on? *Superboy may be a clone of him, but he isn't exactly like Uncle Clark* Dick thought. So, shouldn't the same thing have gone for the Fake Arrow? What about all those times he spent with the clone? Were they even real? Did the clone even feel anything? Dick felt betrayed. He had trusted that clone with so much. His crush on Barbara. His fears about not being good enough to take over for Batman one day, or that he was too weak to ever be a leader of any kind. They pulled crazy pranks together and stayed up late at night watching movies their mentors would kill them for if they ever knew. Roy taught him and Wally how to dance with girls, he tried to show Wally how to get a girl. Emphasis on tried. Those were some of the young boy's favorite memories. Now...Now he wished none of them had happened. He wished he never knew Speedy, never became his friend...never became his brother.

Bruce and Alfred were worried. Dick wouldn't talk to them. He just walked around with this scowl on his face. This was so out of character, it was scary. Normally, Dick never stopped talking or smiling. The boy just went into the gym and had been in there for the past three hours. Bruce decided to call in back up. Maybe Wally could snap him out of this.

**Wally:**

Wally didn't go home that night. He couldn't really explain this to his parents, so they wouldn't understand why he was so angry. Uncle Barry tried to get him to at least come home with him and his Aunt Iris. Wally just went back to the cave with his girlfriend. Girlfriend. Artemis and Wally had officially become a couple on the first day of the new year. He was so happy and yet...he was furious. Roy was a clone? This whole time? Did he even have one really memory of the real Speedy? The real Roy Harper? Maybe when the older red head became Speedy it was still the real Roy, but after that...Were there any important memories? Was it the real Roy that taught him how to ask a girl for her number? Was it a clone that showed him and Rob how to slow dance? What about when the time he and Dick first came to the older boy with girl troubles? Who was it that gave them older-brotherly advice about that? Wally went to the gym in the cave and got on his treadmill. It wasn't like he had his name on it, or anything, but it was the only one modified to go fast as he could run. So Wally ran...and ran...and ran...and ran. He didn't know how long he had been running, he just knew that he had to keep going. Wally never liked to deal with his problems. When Black Canary had said he was in denial about Artemis and the training exercise, she had been spot on. Wally had been in denial. The young speedster didn't like to feel pain. He got enough at school when the kids used to beat him up, that is before Roy taught him how to fight without risking using his powers. *But that probably wasn't real either.* Wally thought bitterly. He had been mentally going through memories of Roy and trying to figure out how much of it was actually real. He figured less than half. Leaning more towards 2/5. He should have seen it. He worked through things faster than other people, shouldn't he have seen through the act? *But...Roy-Clone Roy-says he didn't realize it.* The other, more angry side of Wally rolled his eyes. *Yeah, well he also told us all that Artemis was the mole. He was constantly saying it would be safer to use the comms instead of Miss M, and he thought Superboy should just be put in a stasis pod.* Roy had done so much to throw suspicion onto those three, and off of himself. And they all bought into it. Kaldur, Robin and Wally never thought that their friend...their big brother would ever lie to them.

*Shows how much we know,* Wally thought bitterly to himself. He fell off the treadmill when his girlfriend yelled, "Wally!" He pushed himself into a sitting position with a grunt. "Ya know, Arty, there are easier ways to get my attention than scaring me half to death." Seriously, Artemis had given him a heart attack.

"You're scaring _me_, Baywatch. What are you doing to yourself?" Artemis ran over to him. Wally just looked at her in confusion.

"Artemis, I was just running. I don't see what the prob-"

Artemis pointed to the treadmill he had been running on. "Look at that and tell me nothing is wrong." Wally looked and drew in a sharp breath. The floor of the treadmill was covered in blood. His blood. Wally winced as he had tried to stand up. He looked down at his feet. They were raw and bleeding. He hadn't realized that he wasn't wearing shoes. "Wally, what were you doing?" Artemis asked, holding his face between her hands.

"It was all a lie. Everything I thought I knew about Red Arrow. I-I didn't know how to handle it." Wally stared numbly at his feet. "Artemis, what am I going to do? If I can't run, I'm no good to the team and-" Wally started panicking.

Artemis knew that her boyfriend was going into shock. Both from the knowledge about Roy, and his feet. She gently pushed him onto his back and held his hand. "Shh, shh. It's okay Wally. You're going to be fine." He had to be. Artemis knew that running was everything to him.

(Megan?) Artemis reached for the Martian girl with her mind.

(Yes, Artemis?)

(I need you to come to the gym. Wally's hurt.)

Megan quickly flew off the couch and to the gym. Conner followed her when she told him what was wrong via mental link.

As Wally lay in the med bay, feet wrapped and medicated, Artemis went into his room and grabbed his phone. She wasn't the kind of girl to do this, but she wanted to look in his phone for Robin's number. She hoped that he could help her boyfriend. The boy wonder was always full of life. As she was scrolling through the contacts, the phone started ringing. The caller ID said Batcave, so she answered.

"Hello?"

"Artemis?" a deep gravelly voice questioned back. Batman. "What are you doing with Wally's phone?"

Artemis tried to get herself together. "W-Wally hurt himself. He's pretty torn up about Red Arrow being a clone. I thought that Robin could help him, and since they're best friends, I figured Wally had Robin's number in his phone. Wait a minute. Why are you calling Wally's phone?"

"Robin is having a hard time too. I thought-hoped-that Wally would be handling it better." Batman said tiredly.

"He isn't."

"What about Kaldur?"

**Kaldur:**

Kaldur didn't have as hard of a time with Roy being a clone as the other two boys. Yes, it was hard to accept at first, but this clone truly had believed he was the real Speedy. The real Roy Harper. Kaldur'aum could tell by the look on his face. Wally and Robin were too caught up in the fact that they hadn't known. They felt betrayed and lied to. But Kaldur wondered what about Red Arrow? How did he feel? He found out that his whole life was a lie. He was never meant to be their friend. Never meant to be their brother. He was not supposed to ever have known their secrets. He wasn't even supposed to _be_. His whole life was a lie. Truly, the Atlantian felt bad for Roy. The clone and the original. He knew that at one point, they had known the real Roy Harper. He felt bad for him because the boy, now a man, probably thought they were all looking for him. That is if he wasn't...*Do not think about it.* Kaldur'aum told himself. *Do not think of that possibility.* Kaldur did his 179 lap in the pool. Okay, so he wasn't handling it as well as he thought, but Kaldur was doing better than the younger two boys. Anyway, Kaldur felt bad for the clone because to wake one day and to find out that not only you were the one betraying your friends the whole time you knew them, but you weren't even their real friend? To have your world come crashing down around you? Kaldur could not imagine that pain.

Red Arrow thought that now his only purpose was to find the real Roy. To find Speedy. The thing was, Kaldur didn't know if that was the best thing. They didn't even know Speedy anymore. He wasn't the boy they knew back then, nor the man they had come to know. He was someone else. Kaldur figured he would be the same in personality, but Speedy would not have any memories of them, save the few from when they all first met. Kaldur stopped swimming when he saw a dark figure standing over the pool. He came up out of the water and saw Batman.

"Kaldur'aum."

"Batman, sir." The Atlantian pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the pool. "Is something wrong?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you. I know how Robin and Wally are doing with this. How about you?" Batman asked.

Kaldur stared at his feet still in the water and sighed. "I am...confused."

Batman nodded. "I think you need to come with me to med bay."

"Med bay, sir?"

"Wally hurt himself. Just come to med bay. You all need to talk."

**All:**

Robin didn't understand why he had to be here. The last person he wanted to talk to was Fake Arrow. He just sat on Wally's bed and glared at the traitor. The liar. Wally did the same. When Kaldur walked in, the boys looked up. Batman had gotten Robin to come by saying Wally was hurt. Wally had no choice but to be here. They didn't know what convince Kaldur. Maybe Batman hadn't told him the clone was in here. Judging by the Atlantian's face, that was a safe bet. "Roy."

"Kaldur." The older boys smiled slightly at each other. Kaldur went to sit next to the clone.

"Whoa! Kaldur what are you doing?" Robin yelled in indignation.

"Yeah, how can you still be friendly with that liar." Wally added. Kaldur looked between the boys and Roy. Roy just looked at Kaldur saying, "Go over there. I don't want to start anything."

"A little late for that, Red Arrow." Robin said with bitterness.

Kaldur stepped in between. "My friends. Do not fight."

"Kaldur how can you be so calm about this? He lied to us! For five years!" Wally exclaimed.

Roy ran a hand through his hair. "You have to believe me, I never knew. I thought I was the real Roy."

"Why should we believe you? You tried to blame M'gann, Conner and Artemis. That stuff was all lies. We-We trusted you." Robin said, still with his mini-batglare going.

Kaldur broke in at this point. "He truly thought one of them was the mole. Cadmus programmed his to believe he was Speedy. For the past five years was have been with him, was there ever any doubt that he was our friend?"

"Well, no but-" Wally started.

"Wally, did I ever tell anything you told me to anyone else? Did I ever get you into trouble?" Roy asked.

Wally looked like he wanted to say yes, but realized he couldn't. "No."

"What about you, Dick? Didn't I always take care of you when those jerks would mess with you? Remember, when you were a kid?"

Dick looked down. He did remember. Roy beat them up every single time. A couple would end up in tied to the flag pole upside down. "Yeah. You and Wally." The young boy said quietly.

"So why all of the sudden does that mean nothing? Because you found out that Cadmus made me? Did that make you trust Superboy any less? And who have you known longer?"

Wally and Dick looked away in shame.

"You think it's hard on you? I found out that my whole life, my memories, all of it is a lie. I wasn't ever supposed to do any of that stuff for you. I shouldn't even know you. But I do. I know it's a weird idea to get used to, but you have to believe me when I tell you I never once lied to you. I never tried to put you in harms way. Not of my own free will, anyway. You guys are like my little brothers. Please."

The younger boys looked up at the pleading man in front of them. They looked at each other and silently had a quick conversation. "I really hate when they do this." Roy said quietly to Kaldur.

"As do I, my friend."

"You're right." Wally said.

"We shouldn't turn our backs on you because of this." Dick added.

"You never did with us, and we've done way worse." Wally finished. Roy smiled and laughed. The two had done worse, and he usually got blamed for it, since he was the oldest.

The four boys started talking about random things. Batman watched through the door and sighed in relief as he saw his boy smiling and laughing. Things were back to normal...almost. There was still the disturbing matter of what happened to the real Speedy.


End file.
